High-flying Sevilla will be looking to extend their winning streak and remain in the title chase when they host Athletic Bilbao at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium on Thursday. Athletic Bilbao won the reverse fixture 3-1 earlier this season, but they have not won an away match at Sevilla since 2011. Overall, the recent league record between the two teams shows that they have divided the points equally, with each side winning their respective home games.
Sevilla have recorded three consecutive league wins, including last week's 2-1 derby victory over city rivals Betis, and this streak kept them in third place and just three points behind leaders Real Madrid. They have lost just one of their last ten league matches and won eight of them. Steven N'Zonzi, Pablo Sarabia and Nico Pareja are all suspended, while Clement Lenglet picked up a knock and will miss out through injury.
Athletic Bilbao are sitting comfortably in eighth place at the moment but they can still hope for a late push towards qualification for next season's Europa League. They did get knocked out from that competition last week as they lost 2-0 at APOEL after a 3-2 victory at home. Their away form has been terrible all season, they have not won a league match on the road since September. Aduriz, Kepa and De Marcos are injured and will miss out.
Probable line-ups:
Sevilla: Rico - Mariano, Mercado, Rami, Escudero - Iborra, Kranevitter, Nasri - Correa, Jovetic, Vitolo
Bilbao: Iraizoz - Boveda, Laporte, Alvarez, Balenziaga - Etxebarria, Jose - Lekue, Garcia, Muniain - Williams
My prediction: Sevilla to win 3-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Sevilla win - 1.62
Draw - 4.00
Bilbao win - 5.50
03/02/17, 01:03:36 AM
